The Grind (I) (2012) User Reviews

Pointless mockney pseudo-gangsterism

[lovegropa · 2/10 · 1 August 2012]

A truly tedious and pointless bit of mockney tripe.

I only give it 2 marks because of the 'gritty' camera-work, but thats about its only redeeming feature. Full of the usual "do-what-leave-it ahht" suspects who have been excellent in so many other Brit gangster movies, but sadly in this one, well, they didn't exactly lose the plot because there wasn't one frankly.

Add to that the massive suspension of disbelief; bloke robs supermarket with zero attempt to disguise himself. Gangster not only kills a bloke that owes him 'ten fairzan pairnd' (presumably in the hope that he has life insurance I suppose?) but does so with a crowbar in broad daylight.

The characters are poorly developed in most cases and their relationships to each other never properly explained. "I owe you, you know that" is never explained, nor is what "do-what" did with the ten grand.

All in all not recommended and a poor advert for a genre usually well populated with some quality films.

'Lock Stock' it ain't me old mush!

worst film ever

[jorisbohnson · 1/10 · 4 June 2012]

terrible plot, shocking acting made worse with bad mockney accents, jamie foreman was good but it looks like all the budget went on him! everything about it was really unbelievable, like a bad drama class loads of bad pauses in between lines, bad delivery of lines. Really annoying direction, showing nightclub scenes for too long, seemed like it was trying to pad out the film with slow motion shots of the dance floor, completely boring i had to fast forward loads of bits, and there was no relationships between the characters, and the dialogue was really unbelievable to the DJ.."ill tell you what mate.. bang out a couple of house tunes yeah??" amateur hour! don't bother watching it, total waste of time.

What Just Happened?

[medialuvr · 5/10 · 16 April 2012]

Brit gangster movies can be enjoyable, but this one was simply too tedious and confusing for me. I really wanted to like it. Closer editing would have condensed the story into a crisper 30 minute presentation. The production team was obviously going for gritty street realism, and it showed. It is truly regrettable that I have to produce ten lines of text for this review to be posted, but here goes. The characters were one-dimensional; "Dave" did not come across with the gravitas one seeks in a cinematic villain; Bobby was not tragically flawed, merely tragic; the soundtrack was even more grating than Dave's tire iron; viewers will struggle to differentiate major, minor, and other characters. Would I be spoiling if I recommended that readers not invest any wealth, interest, emotion, or time into this movie? I give it a 5 because I still can't figure out what happened, and that which did happen might have been good to other viewers. Or maybe not.

Truly,truly, truly awful!!!!!

[Eelsdownyourleg · 1/10 · 5 May 2013]

I had lost sight of how bad a film could be.

I am genuinely lost for words and would not know where to begin describing how appalling this film is. However, I'll give it a shot: It is a plot-less mess, that hopes to somehow redeem itself in the 'arty' (read sh*te) editing.

Suffice to say this film could be used as torture mechanism, water- boarding would seem like a month in the Maldives.

Please spare yourself the need to have to write a review by avoiding at all cost.

'The Grind' really does plumb new depths of badly shot banality. It also re-defines what can be called a 'film'

I like gritty, I love 'Deadman's Shoes' (9.8/10 for me) but for f*ck's sake, don't expect anything remotely watchable or anything with a semblance of cohesion or meaning.

Oh dear...

[anxietyresister · 1/10 · 28 October 2012]

Folks, welcome to amateur hour. How anybody who read this script, worked on set or even served tea at the cafeteria kept a straight face is beyond me. You could fill volumes of the Encyclopedia Britainnica listing the myriad of faults here, but let me have a stab:

1. There is a nightclub that plays the same two rubbish house tunes throughout, but no-one inside complains, in fact they all dance EXACTLY the same way. Often, there are large stretches with no dialogue, just the camera panning around this dive and somehow always ending up focusing on a blonde girl. Did she sleep with the director to get so much attention?

2. The thrust of the plot is of this dude owing money to some boss man, who must be the least intimidating heavy ever. Look at him on the front cover, with his little short arse and the constipated expression on his face. Yet somehow, instead of crushing him underfoot, everyone is terrified of him. Did the 6ft 5 ex-boxer fail to turn up to auditions, so they were forced to use this hobbit?

3. There is a scene here when the dude that owes money returns to his flat to find they've smashed up one of his rooms, including sprayed graffiti on the wall (OHH NOO)!! His wheelchair bound mother stumbles on the wreckage first, when she promptly has a heart attack. We then see him again later on in the same room, holding onto a shard of glass until blood drips down his hand. This might not sound like much, but the way it unfurls on screen is absolutely hilarious, especially with the 'tragic' music in the background.

4. The dude that owes money works at a generic store. To get the dosh, he decides to rob the safe. He enlists the help of his mate who works at the aforementioned nightclub, who says no. Later on, his mate has a change of heart, and turns up just as the dude's robbery is going belly-up. His mate grabs the gun to let the dude escape, and when the police turn up, pretends he was the one who committed the offense. This is seen as a 'noble sacrifice' in the context of the film. Only problem is, EVERYONE in the store has already seen the dude waving the gun around, so he has no chance of getting away with it. OOPS.

5. Danny John-Jules? SERIOUSLY? You couldn't wait a year to start making the new series of Red Dwarf? You had to embarrass yourself, your family, your pets etc till the end of time by agreeing to star in this atrocity? For Shame. FOR SHAME.

Basically, it would have been a lot better if everyone had gone home, the script was thrown in the nearest furnace and the £500 budget was donated to charidee. After all, it's not too long to Children In Need... 1/10

Truly awful

[paxton75 · 1/10 · 19 April 2013]

I've never been moved to write a review before, but this film is truly awful.

I read in another review that in Q&A with the director this was from true life experience? If this is the case then he must live a very strange life. We have a club that can apparently pass 10k extra through the books when that would probably account for a 300% rise in takings. A club which attracts 50 people and plays 2 tunes all night. An owner that's doing so well and is impressing his "boss" so much that he can't lend more than £500. A man who is prepared to rob his own work at gunpoint without so much as a tea towel round his face. An armed response unit consisting of 1 car and 3 officers and the generic loan shark who is prepared to beat someone to death in broad daylight because they are 7k short of a 10k debt.

Please don't get me wrong, I love a London flick and watch many with a misty eyed reminiscence whilst being perfectly happy to ignore a few plot flaws, dodgy acting and even dodgier accents. This just stretched it too far. I can only think The Grind referred to the pace of the film, but I was giving it a go expecting perhaps some detailed character development. What I got was no character development, no believable interaction, terrible acting (the hand cutting scene and the multi storey car park were priceless) and a conclusion that was akin to getting rid of a house spider with a rocket launcher. 3/4's of the film was the life of the tamest occasional clubber rounded off with the fate of someone who had betrayed a serious villain in a way that was about to cost him 10 years or 10 million.

Jamie Foreman, Danny John-Jules, why? This must have been a favour owed. If you have a spare hour and a half in your life, go and take a long dump, you'll come out feeling much more satisfied.

I really liked this movie! Why so many haters???!

[s-larcher · 9/10 · 8 July 2014]

OK first up. This film is clearly REALLY LOW BUDGET and I see from the credits of the director it's his first film and was made from a previous short film he made some years before. So going from a short to a feature is clearly a MASSIVE step up and over all I felt he did a pretty good job all being considered. Clearly having a bigger budget would have helped this film as they could have added more action, bigger named actors and better locations/extras, sound track and stunts etc. The DP has done a great job on this as it really helped the film feel edgy, dirty and the low budget feel really helped make it feel like a nasty bleak world! We are all going to Hoxton/Dalston darling!" this film ain't! :-) I personally thought the casting of Jamie Foreman was a master stroke as His dad used to be a real Hackney gangster and was in fact a hit man for the Krays for some years and KILLED A FAIR FEW PEOPLE FOR THEM. Foreman therefore lent the film a greater feel of realism than going for just another east end bad guy boss like other crime films have done. It was also a interesting part for Danny John Jules and bar his deleted extras scene in "Lock Stock" I haven't really seen him play that kind of role before or anything of that kind of low budget nature so I guess he and Foreman must have really seen something different in the realness of the script like for example Bobbie owing Foreman only £10k rather than say £250k which is more of a movie sum of money to kill someone over. In fact the fact he beat him to death himself for such a small sum of money was really shocking for me but again set up this kind of harsh and bleak, true London world. The movie does have it's flaws though it has to be said! There are far too many roles in the film (the cast seems pretty massive), there are clearly not enough extras in the night club which either means it was a real dive of a club or the film just didn't have enough money to really fill out the club scenes properly as they must have all cost money. A bit of both I would have thought. The trance music score wasn't really to my tast either but then I'm no trance fan so that's hard to judge the movie down for that one. Also the club scenes should have been edited a bit more as they did go on a bit. All in all I felt the director did a very good job on his first movie with room for improvement moving forward for future films. The Grind was a very gritty, real and hard depiction of a quickly changing part of the east end. This movie deserves it's place in the collection of gritty realistic low budget crime films. A pretty good job!

Another turgid entry for the Mockney drama genre

[JabbasHut · 31 July 2012]

The urban drama is saturated to bursting point with run of the mill, lazy mockney dramas and The Grind brings absolutely nothing new to the genre. The characterisations are woefully developed and acted; they stumble through what can hardly be considered narrative spewing out lines of dire- logue that amounts to posturing and screaming "fack" at each other. The direction isn't much better. The pacing is all over the shop from overly long shots of club scenes and slow motion walks to pad out the 90mins run time whilst employing bleached out visuals via out of focus shaky cam (presumably for "realism"). Overall though, it's just plain dull and is truly a Grind just to get to the credits.

One For The Gangster Collection!

[fathemaaly · 6/10 · 5 June 2012]

After watching a poor film called Baseline I wanted to watch The Grind, as Baseline was an identical remake of The Grind, with the same story and characters as well as the same actors.

Since Baseline did so badly and did nothing for the careers of the cast and crew involved this would somewhat explain the negative reviews of The Grind.

At first you think The Grind is going to be just another gangster movie, but its much more and much better than that. The film follows two friends leading very different lives, one of Bobby and the other Vince. Both stories run along side each other until they meet and things start to go downhill for both characters.

There are violent situations for both characters, Vince dealing with the nightclub lifestyle and Bobby who gets threatened by Dave (played by Jamie Foreman) and gets beaten up by Tony, Dave's henchman. Bobby self-harming was tough to watch, but showed how desperate his situation was. With Phil (Danny John-Jules) his last friend to turn to for help the last 15 minutes are quite tense and lead to a climax for both of the main characters!

This is a low budget film and there are technical issues, but The Grind gives you an insight into British crime like no other. Director Rishi Opel lays on the violence thick and fast which may put off some viewers, so if you have a problem with brutality stay away, if not check it out. If your looking for something hardcore, this film pulls no punches.

Where Baseline tried The Grind survived!

Mixed bag - but Foreman is good

[BigBlaster123 · 8/10 · 20 April 2012]

I was looking forward to watching The Grind. Having been a fan of Jamie Foreman for years, and his fantastic turn in EastEnders over the last 6 months, this film looked interesting.

And was it any good? It was pretty good for a low budget film, to be fair. The story of a couple of mates, with one owing money to the other's boss is a familiar line. Martin Scorsese did this with Mean Streets nearly 30 years ago. But it works here in the Hackney setting.

Performances range from very good to poor. Stand outs are Foreman and Danny John-Jules (Cat from Red Dwarf)

Production values are good - visually it holds well, having gone for the gritty street realism of Nil By Mouth and Fish Tank. You can see the angle the Director had gone for in presenting a urban, street level feel.

The problems are fairly easy to point at. The female characters are underused. The Vince character isn't great, it would have been better to have focused solely on the main character Bobby. And some of the dance scenes go on a bit, so if you like trance, that's great, but otherwise...

Having said that, the pluses are there. The director has a strong visual sense, the locations are reminders of what many Londoners live through outside of the glare of the media. Jamie Foreman is at his most serious best, in fact his best performance in years. The story and dialogue is good.

So it's a bit hit and miss, but worth a watch, even just to see Danny John-Jules and Jamie Foreman in strong performances, and the evocative settings and visuals. And it's a whole lot better than some of the British dross out there.

PAY UP BOBBY

[nogodnomasters · 6/10 · 17 August 2018]

The film mostly centers around Bobby (Gordon Alexander) who just got out of prison and has habits. He works as a stock boy at a grocery store. His mum (Joan Hodges)is sick and confined to a wheel chair. He owes Dave (Jamie Foreman, the ugly guy on the cover) money that he can't pay back. Bobby has a good friend Vince (Freddie Connor) who manages a trance/techno dance club called "The Grind." Vince works for aforesaid Dave, who cooks the books. Dave plans on opening a casino and can't have anything go awry while the application is in process.

The main plot action consists of Dave leaning on people for money. Bobby's life spirals out of control as he tries to get cash to pay Dave back. While the film centers around Bobby, Vince is the closest thing we have to a likeable character in this crime thriller. I thought the production was well directed, written, and acted. It held my interest, but it lacked the dry humor that we have come to expect in British film. Jamie Foreman gives us an excellent performance. At 107 minutes the dance scenes could have been shortened.

F-bombs, brief sex, nudity (Zoe Tapper)

Catch it if you can!

[scottparkley · 8/10 · 10 August 2012]

I watched this film last night after watching EastEnders and I really enjoyed it. I've always been a fan of independent films and this is an intelligent film. It's idea is not complicated at all but smart at the same time and here lies its strength to me: The Idea. It's about the characters in a world of nightclubs and all the possible possibilities in our life that people create and the biggest (bad or good) changes they make. With all low budget films the acting is poor but I felt the lead was good - Gordon is one to watch for the future! Danny-John Jules plays the crafty Phil and Jamie Foreman was mesmerising as always and perhaps carried the film on his own at times. Catch it if you can!

Not a bad attempt at a first feature film!

[rottsweet · 9/10 · 21 April 2012]

First of all ignore the negative reviews. There are technical issues with the film, but the storyline is fine! The film revolves around Bobby and his debts to an East End gangster, Dave, played by Jamie Foreman, currently in EastEnders as Derek Branning.

I felt Jamie Foreman came across well as the ruthless gangster who demands his debt is paid or else. Much in the liking of his father working along side the Krays brothers in the 60's.

The urban feel of the movie came across well in terms of the dialogue and the cinematography. Clearly the Director is a fan of Nil by Mouth. My favourite bit was the overdose on the dancefloor and the dance music suited it well. It could have been edited like a music video, but clearly the slow motion scenes were there to to tell a story and not a 3 minute pop video.

The story was clearly defined and the performances could have been better, especially from the co- lead,it was clear to see it was one of his first performances. It also had a very non-Hollywood ending which I wasn't expecting, I guess that was why Jamie Foreman wanted to play the role of Dave. Overall not a bad attempt at a first feature film and I look forward to see what the director does next!

A really interesting debut!

[nicetrack · 9/10 · 27 April 2012]

I saw this at the Apollo cinema and I have to say it was visually very impressive. Very nice grade similar to Heat for the nightclub scenes and reverting back to a desaturated look for the urban scenes.

It was especially rewarding to have the writer, producer and director (Rishi Opel) in attendance for the Q&A after the film.

The performances were good, the lead was cast right as the debt ridden, out of control, Bobby who's quiet and lonely and the director keeps it real by not giving the audience too much information about Bobby and his past dealings with his best mate Vince. It kept me interested in the character of Bobby and wanting to know more about him.

Vince, Bobby's best mate runs the club for Dave (Jamie Foreman) and Vince comes across as the ambitious, loud, thuggish, violent types who wants it all including running a casino for Dave. The performance of Vince was poor and let the film down in some aspects. The casting was just wrong. It was an unusual choice of having the two stories running parallel and this slowed the film down in parts. Perhaps this was the original part of the story and it did come across as intentional.

Jamie Foreman plays it straight, as the guy who wants his money and if he doesn't get it, then something is going to happen. His performance is great and keeps the film moving. Danny-John Jules (Cat from Red Dwarf) turns in a good performance as the wheeler dealer mate and surprised me with an unusual role I've not seen him play before.

During the Q&A, I found it interesting to hear the experience Rishi Opel had throughout the process of making and completing the film and problems he encountered. It was clear to see that The Grind was his life story and solely his vision. His story was tampered with from the people involved, and problems with dealing with negative people, but all he wanted to do was just make a movie and entertain an audience. His knowledge of the early 90's dance movement showed he had experience in the rave culture and his enthusiasm came across well and was certainly infectious. It was good to hear that he hold no grudges against anyone and that he'll be behind the camera again for his second feature!

Overall it was astonishingly impressive to see what an independent, enthusiastic, Writer, Producer & Director can achieve. A really interesting debut!

Decent film with Jamie Foreman

[Charlie123987 · 8/10 · 21 April 2012]

I hadn't actually heard of this movie until I stumbled upon it searching for Jamie Foreman from EastEnders. I had no expectations for it at all as I had not heard of the supporting cast members apart from Danny-John Jules who plays the "Cat" from Red Dwarf! I have to say that the ending was an interesting choice that I was not expecting as I was really rooting for both Bobby & Vince.

The storyline is good, a slightly different take on the gangster genre. We actually see the character development of the main characters, with two different visual styles which I found really cool. The acting was mostly good all round, a couple of the female characters were slightly weak in moments but not bad. I wish Zoe Tapper was in a bit more.

It's very urban & gritty which is quite popular at the moment. The Grind moves along at a good pace and the slow bits are there to allow the audience to breathe & let the characters develop which is a bonus. I'd rate The Grind as a realistic portrayal of urban life & the nightclub world. There are issues in terms of technical quality, but being low budget it was a good solid effort all round!

An East End crime drama with a deadly twist

[benhollobone · 8/10 · 1 May 2012]

A gangster movie set on the streets of London is nothing new. The story is interesting and the rave culture come through well and it's nice to see a new film maker on the scene doing a different take on the gangster genre. The film revolves around Bobby and his debts to the local crime lord Dave. The performances are weak in places and could have done with some stronger female characters being developed such as Zoe Tapper has a great future, but clearly it was a guns and geezers movie with trance music and a heist thrown in. It's definitely not a student film and it's good to see the film doing so well in the charts and doing a lot better than the crapline of films that are out there! 8 out of 10 because of the brave ending and being so high in the charts

This is not a student film!

[mrsasood-350-420059 · 9/10 · 21 April 2012]

With Jamie Foreman starring I was expecting something along the lines of Layer Cake or the excellent Dead Man Running. However, this is a fairly dramatic and at times a very dark and gritty tale. It follows the story of Bobby a supermarket worker with a debt to the local crime-lord "Dave" played by Jamie Foreman. When Bobby realises what's at stake he has to take matters into his own hands. It seems at times the director is trying to do Mean Streets, but with a bit of action. Well actually there are also drug taking & sex scenes too. However essentially it is a tale of criminal wheeling and dealing, backstabbing, friendship & betrayal. Even without knowing the story in advance, I can say the final act came as a surprise. The picture quality was average and a wooden performance from the supporting lead, but the trance/techno soundtrack suits the era well. This film is certainly not a student film and anyone who claims it to be has no idea what cinema is. The Grind is certainly worth watching.

Better than I thought but...

[searchanddestroy-1 · 8/10 · 9 April 2018]

Of course this is a lousy picture, as are most of recent crime films from UK, all from the Guy Ritchie's fashion. Lousy, lousy and lousier one than the other. But this one is far better if you consider the story and the characters, especially the ending which is totally unpredictable and in the pure film noir tradition. very brutal and shocking. Yes, I love this film especially for its ending that saves the whole thing. But besides this, the directing is absolutely awful with such lenghts, such as in the night club when you see people dancing in the dark long, long minutes long. I don't know if the director wanted to copy the DEER HUNTER mariage sequence between Meryl Streep and John Cazale - if my memory is good - but this night club sequence is totally useless. But to summarize, this little film noir is very weird in the fact that it is awful, lousy and very good in the same time.

Great British Gangster Flick!

[willreemer · 8/10 · 4 December 2017]

Perhaps not quite Lock Stock but still an awesome British Gangster movie!! I was very surprised to see the low rating here certainly compared to some other British movies released lately, as this one is thoroughly enjoyable. Definitely up there with the likes of Layer Cake, Gangster No. 1 etc.. Instant classic!!!